The use of computer systems and computer-related technologies continues to increase at a rapid pace. This increased use of computer systems has influenced the advances made to computer-related technologies. Indeed, computer systems have increasingly become an integral part of the business world and the activities of individual consumers. Computer systems may be used to carry out several business, industry, and academic endeavors.
Computer systems may function as information management systems. For example, a server may provide information about files or other data to client computer systems. A client may send a request to a server querying whether a particular file is malicious or non-malicious. In addition, the client may request information from the server regarding a particular website. The back-end (i.e., server) may perform an analysis of the files, websites, data, etc., in order to provide a response to the client.
Vendors of computer products (e.g., software) may offer a trial version of the product (i.e., trialware). A user may install the trial version on the client in order to determine whether or not to purchase the full version of the product. The trial version may be accessed by the user for a predetermined period of time. The trial version may offer as many of the functions as possible that the full version offers to the user. Offering the maximum amount of functions and options to the user through the trial version may increase the likelihood that the trial user will ultimately purchase the full version. Vendors, however, lack the capability of tracking malicious users that use such trial versions. For example, a malicious user may install a trial version of software and make repeated queries to a back-end server with the goal of scraping or mining information from the server. The trial version of software may not include authentication safeguards to prevent such attacks. As a result, benefits may be realized by providing system and methods for authenticating requests from a client running trialware through a proof of work protocol.